Natural Thing
by DeborahsFrench
Summary: Her eyes avoided looking at her reflection in the mirrored wall; She did not need to see how bad she looked. Her face was pale, well, paler than usual, her cheeks flushed with fever. She definitely was not well.


**A.N.** apologies for my little mistake with paragraphing, I have checked the story over and fixed it as best I could. Yes, the way I have done it is as annoying as hell, but it will do until I find a different way around it.

**Natural Thing -**

Radiant light blasted through her bedroom window, caressing the room entirely in its warmth. A faint groan came from the small lump in the bed, as the cream sheets surrounding her body shuffled slightly. Heavy breathing replaced the silence in the room as Elle Greenaway thought, as best she could, about her dilemma. _If I move the sheets the light will agitate the headache. _She crossed that off her list, moving onto the downside. _On the other hand, if I don't I think I might die from heat. _Her hand travelled to her forehead, _Definite fever coming on. _She cursed lightly under her breath; This was not a good sign. There was another pause while she figured out what to do. _I could call in sick, I am sure there isn't anything against me doing that. It's not like I've had any days off._ She took a deep breath, finally allowing air to enter her lungs through her mouth. Curse her blocked nose! _Of course I haven't, I've only been in the BAU a few weeks. _Sighing deeply she made her mind up. _You have no choice but to go in. Stay off and they'll think you're incompetent, they'll regret letting you onto the team. Yes, go in. _Her mind was made up. Done. There was no other option, all she could do was pray for a paperwork day and another hours sleep. Letting her eyelids fall, she felt herself sink into a calm slumber.

NTNTNT

A loud blurring noise filled her room as she was snatched away from her slumber just ten minutes later. For a moment she pondered on just going back to sleep and ignoring her alarm entirely. That thought soon stopped as the pain in her head increased by ten times; she had no other choice than to turn the alarm off and enter the blinding sun. _One, Two. Three._ On three she shoved the blankets back from her body, squinting harshly as she hit the off button. The cool air of the room washed over her head and immediately calmed the fever in her forehead and cheeks. Pushing herself to stand up, she fumbled into her bathroom, in search of something that would soothe the dreadful headache.

NTNTNT

Watching each step she took carefully, Elle found her way into the BAU lift. Her fragile, shaking finger pressed the button that would take her to the BAU's floor, and as the elevator doors finally shit, she allowed herself to relax, thankful for being alone in the metal container. Her eyes avoided looking at her reflection in the mirrored wall; She did not need to see how bad she looked, not after looking at herself already for a good twenty minutes in the mirror this morning. Her face was pale, well, paler than usual, her cheeks lightly flushed. Her nose was blocked so her mouth remained open, like it often was. The brown hair that normally sat out on her shoulders was tied back, neatly, and only the top layer. The bottom was left out, carefully sprung at the ends were a few curls from where she had tried to put an effort into her look. Trying her best to distract from the paleness and flush of her face but also using her best efforts to keep her hair from adding any extra heat to her body. She took another deep breath as her hands fumbled to smooth down the loose top, another thing added to keeping her cool, and she steadied the two hands out in front of her, both shaking slightly. _Okay, a little too much caffeine._ She mentally told herself, cursing under her breath as she remembered reading the headache tablet box a few weeks ago, and clearly recalled the caffeine listed in the ingredients. That added with the cups of coffee she had this morning and it was no surprise she had had this side effect. Bringing the shaking objects to her face, she smoothed them down her forehead and cheeks a last time, thankful for the coolness of her hands as a result of the cold outside. Then a 'ding' filled the metal cage, letting her hands drop back to her sides, she steadied herself, putting on a big smile. Ready for the lies she was about to feed her team. Taking each step, her boots made a light clicking sound that Elle noticed more carefully today. The tap on the solid floor was annoying to her, and the thought of walking into the BAU with that noise, only made her feel that she would get more attention than necessary. She swallowed hard and came up with the final answer she had been trying to work out for the past hour. _Late night, that's it. It's all they need to know._ She immediately knew if she told them that it would pose more questions, questions she could not be bothered answering right at this minute. _No, I can't tell them that. _Working in overdrive, the small cogs in her head clicked almost as loudly as her boots were as she tried to figure something else out. She stopped. Frozen in the doorway of the bull-pen. All of their desks were empty, void of life and the ever-growing pile of files on their desks remained untouched. _Crap. _Instead of coming up with a lie, she let herself finally speed walk into the conference room, now wondering instead if she had missed the early call from Hotch.

"And she shows." Her presence was immediately announced by Morgan.

"Sorry, I, I didn't get the call." It did not take a profiler to notice that she was looking down at the floor for a reason, hiding something.

"There was no call, Elle." Hotch now said.

"Oh." Her eyes still fixed on the floor, she walked and sat at the available chair, right in between Garcia and Morgan. _Great. _She gave a roll of her exhausted eyes, not that anyone would see.

"Jesus." Came the reaction from Morgan when he finally saw her face as she looked up to burry her mind in the file that lay on the table.

"Elle, are you well?" Hotch now asked. _Frickin' great. _She took a deep breath.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Hotch. So, what's the case?" Elle gave her best attempt at changing the subject.

"That can wait, what's wrong?" Morgan persisted and Elle hated him at the moment for it.

"Nothing, I'm fine, everything's fine. Can we get on with the case now?" She shot him a glare, which was not as powerful as she had intended it, especially not with the watery eyes, but she got her point across.

"Morgan, leave it. Go on, JJ." Hotch sent a nod in the blondes way and she began.

NTNTNT

The sudden movement of the plane taking off was not a feeling Elle was liking at all. If she had not already felt so sick, the movement confirmed it by shaking her upset stomach, making her want to throw up all over again. She let a sleepy breath leave her body, quiet enough so no one else could hear her, as she remembered the ordeal before she left for the plane. It was meant to be a simple: grab your go-bag from under your desk and sleep, task. But no, her body hated her for no apparent reason, and Hotch, Reid and Gideon had to wait an extra ten minutes in the car as she furiously threw up into the toilets. When she finally got to the car, she made her apology's another time, this time there was no Morgan to question if she was alright, instead she was questioned by Hotch on if she was well enough to do the job. She regretted that decision now, although she would let no member of the team know it. Dizziness had been a frequent thing since she got out of the car on the air strip, but, luckily for her, no one noticed, or if they did, no one said a thing. Elle knew some eyes were on her, who's she had no clue, and she was not looking up to find out, not to show them the exhaustion laced eyes, the wateriness from the cold, her red, flushed cheeks. No, she would not be asked again if she was alright, so instead she let herself get buried in the case file on her lap, trying anything to distance herself from the worried faces of the team; She was not someone that needed help. Elle had become so engrossed in the file that she had almost not heard one of her team members speak about her, _almost._ Her ears peaked up, as she listened to Morgan once again voice his concern, this time to her boss.

"She isn't well, Hotch." Morgan informed his boss, as if he had not already have known.

"There's nothing I can do." Hotch said, flippantly.

"Send her home." Was Morgan's quick response.

"In the middle of a flight?" Elle did not have to look up to see Hotch raise an eyebrow at the other man.

"Send her to the hotel when we land then."

"Morgan, if she is insisting she is fine, there is nothing I can do. Without her having risked her work ethic being here sick, there really isn't much I can do until that point." Hotch's informative boss-tone filled her mind now, echoing like mad as she felt the headache boom back. That was when she lost the focus in the conversation.

Digging around in her go-bag, which was so discreetly at her feet, she found a bottle of tablets and some water. Her eyes darted up, and saw that at that moment in time no one was looking at her, so, she opened the bottle, poured two of the pills into her hand before hiding them back away in her underwear. _No one will look in there._ Before swallowing the two pills with a gulp of watery. The cold bottle chilled her hands as she put that back into her bag, looking around again, she pressed her hands to her cheeks. Knowing they needed to be calmed down the most, _I must look like a right idiot._ She gave an silent groan, knowing it looked like she was caught in a permanent blush. Letting the hands drop from her cheeks, she let her right hand fall onto her stomach, rubbing in circles to try and settle the sickness bubbling inside. Her left hand held the folder in front of her stomach, resting the tip on the table, hiding what she was doing beneath it. In another attempt to calm herself, she took steadying breaths, that also failing. Dropping her hand with superhero speed, she tried her best not to look up as JJ walked past her into the cockpit of the plane.

"Landing in twenty." The blonde announced as she came back, her hand finding Elle's shoulder and rubbing slightly in a circle.

"Alright, we should brief." Hotch called, no one looking up to JJ which Elle found as a relief. She waited a moment for the blonde to walk past her and back to her seat facing Hotch, before standing up and taking a seat facing Reid.

The team began to talk, and Elle tried her best to listen to every word spoke and input when it was needed, not that she wanted to, knowing her input would cause them all to look at her, but also knowing keeping quiet would give the same result to. It was a moment or two into briefing before Elle felt a sneeze wire it's way up her nose, making her eyes water even more than they already did. As fast as she could she fished a new tissue from her pocket and sneezed not once, not twice but three times into the tissue.

"Gizuntight." Gideon said and relief washed over her for the moment realising that the rest of the team (Morgan aside) had let the sneezing lie. For now at least.

NTNTNT

As she left the car outside the police station, she was thrown with the biggest wave of dizziness she had experienced to date. She stopped for a moment, taking the time to compose herself, remember where the hell she was, what she was looking at. Her heart thumped heavily, forcefully and she could have sworn it was going to beat out of her chest. Taking many deep breaths, she calmed the dizzy feeling, and the sickness in the pit of her stomach, for the time being, and was finally able to look around at who was still there. Thankfully, it was only Gideon and JJ.

"Are you okay?" JJ was now stood next to her, holding her arm as if in a way to support her. _Since when did she get there?_ Elle wondered, but gave a nod when she realised she had been asked a question.

"Yeah, sorry." She gave JJ a fake, reassuring smile, and knew, even though the woman was not a profiler, she knew it was not real.

Elle's hand ran up her head, grateful for the cool air outside the car to finally be hitting her. It was then that she wondered how high her fever actually was. 99? 100 at the most she figured. Then she made a light mental note that when they got a slight break from this case, if she was still sick, she would go to a pharmacy and get a thermometer. Just to make sure she was fine.

NTNTNT

As Morgan turned around from the board in front of him, he looked worried, seeing Elle in her chair, asleep against her hand on the table. God, she looks exhausted. He cursed, giving a light sigh, he walked towards her sleeping form and noticed JJ and Garcia watching him as he did so. As carefully as he could, he let his hand fall onto her forehead, then her cheeks without waking her. A frown fell on his face as she was quite hot.

"Is she okay?" JJ and Garcia had immediately stood up as they saw the frown.

"She's burning up." It was now JJ's turn to press her hand to Elle's forehead, seeing for herself just how warm the profiler was. Then she gave a nod to Garcia, confirming that Morgan was right. As best she could, she tried to take her hand away from the sleeping profiler. Unfortunately, Elle woke up as soon as she did, sleep thick in her eyes and confusion lacing her words.

"What?" As soon as she spoke her words were groggy, and she had no choice but to cough to clear her scratchy throat. Elle knew that was not a good idea as he body was thrown into a coughing fit. She was so distracted by the coughing fit that when she came out of it, taking deep breaths to steady her racing heart, she felt a hand on her back. _JJ._ She gave a groan and turned to look around, seeing only their Media Liaison and Technical Analyst in the room. _Where's Morgan gone? _She wondered to herself.

"Are you okay?" She ignored the question from JJ, and then once from Garcia, still trying her best to lock those brown eyes on Morgan.

"Where the hell did Morgan go?" She asked, a slight shudder within herself. _Weird._ She wondered for a moment why she was so cold when she had a fever and her hand reached up to touch her forehead just to confirm it was still warm.

"He's talking to Hotch." Came JJ's brief answer. "You should go back to the hotel." Elle felt herself immediately shake her head.

"No, I'm fine." Instead she felt her eyes look around the room she was in in super speed, latching onto the board finally. _Something to distract myself. _She stood up, leaving the concerned glances from the other two females. "Do we have anything new?" She asked.

"No." JJ shook her head and Elle gave a triumphant smile. _So much easier to change the subject with these two._

"Where are the others?" Elle looked around, outside the glass window, far to the left, she could see Morgan having a private word with Hotch. Biting on her bottom lip, she hoped it was not about her.

"Reid and Gideon are off getting some food, figured we needed to eat some time." Her stomach flipped. Food was the last thing on her list now, and not because of the sickness, she just was not hungry. It was not like she had thrown up more than once or twice, the last time being when she left the BAU, and her stomach felt completely settled now.

"Great." She gave them a fake smile, not taking her eyes off of the scene outside, desperately trying to lip read in the conversation that was going on.

NT

"She's really sick, Hotch." Morgan insisted another time.

"Once again, there is nothing I can do about it, not until she decides to leave or even jeopardises something in the field." Hotch stared Morgan down.

"She has a freakin' fever!" Morgan's hand raised to point at Elle, "She's also fallen asleep. Isn't that enough to show she can't be doing her job?"

"Not really. We're technically on a partial break, all we need to do is sit and wait for something to happen in the case or with her."

"C'mon, Hotch, send her to the hotel, she won't argue with you!" Hotch gave a shake of his head.

"No." Was all he said as he saw Gideon and Reid re-enter with bags of Chinese food. "Let's go eat." He said, walking away, leaving Morgan looking a little more than pissed.

NTNTNT

The tub of food in front of her had not been touched once. All of it's contents remained untouched. She felt, even from just thinking about the food, her stomach flip, and knew even if she tried to press a single bit to her mouth she would throw up. _No, I'll save that embarrassment for another day. _So, instead, she fiddled with the chopsticks in the tub, pretending to be actually eating to anyone that glanced at her every so often, but that would not work. For the past twenty six minutes Morgan had been watching her like a hawk, skilfully not even looking at his own food as he ate from the container. Elle did not once look up to meet his judgemental eyes, instead she found herself focused on a scratch in the table, studying it carefully, every bend, every rough mark. Anything to take her mind away from the impending food and gazes. Putting the tub down on the table, she felt her hand grab for the water as the headache slowly began it's dreadful return. Cursing in her head, she remembered the tablets she needed to much were in her bag and that was in the car. A whole obstacle course lay in her way, and she was not to happy with it. As she pressed the glass to her lips and took a mouthful of the cool liquid which immediately soothed her throbbing throat, she stole a glance at the clock. _It will be dark soon. _She gave herself a mental smile, knowing before her headache increased, she could go out in the darkness and get the pills to calm it. That was if she could break away from the team for long enough. Placing the glass back on the table, she made no effort to pick the container of food back up.

"Not hungry, Greenaway?" She knew Morgan was taunting her, especially with the use of her last name.

"Shove off, Derek." She shot him a cold glare, really not needing it right now. Her hand went to her temple and rubbed soothingly in a circle, anything to calm the impending headache. Although she was not looking, she could tell that Hotch had shot him a glare as Morgan did not press the issue any further.

Her body gave off another involuntary shudder, as she felt a chill rise through her body. Elle really was not sure right now what was worse; the chills and fever, the impending headache or the rising vomit in her throat. Settling on it being the vomiting, she forced more water down her throat, in any attempt to stop herself from throwing up in front of the team. There was a subtle shake of her head, in which she realised that that was just making it worse, and, although the action was tiny, everyone around the table looked to her, and immediately noticed the paling of her face. Watery eyes darting around the room, she found herself shooting up from the chair and over to the nearest trash-can, throwing up the little bit of water she had drank that day. She did not miss the way someone had now stood behind her, placing a chair for her to sit on. Her arms clasped around her stomach, where it was cramping with all of the retching. Then the room fell silent as the door was flung open.

"We have something!" One of the officers snapped, not even pausing in the room before leaving.

Immediately all of the team got up to leave, Elle included.

"JJ, take Elle back to the hotel." Hotch ordered, not even letting her argue as him and everyone else went out to where the officer was.

"Like hell." Elle begun to stand up, but was pushed down gently by JJ.

"No, you're going back, no arguments." The blonde told her.

NTNTNT

Opening her eyes to take in the surroundings she was now in, she realised she was fast asleep in the pitch black hotel room. No light gaining access besides from the small crack under the door where the hallway light was turned on. She gave a light huff, and blew out a deep breath, feeling her forehead as she checked how warm she was. _No better. _She noted. _But no worse._ She hoped. Forcing herself, dizziness began to consume her as she tried her best to look around the hotel room and discover why she had woken up. Then her eyes locked on it, JJ, standing at the foot of her bed. Elle felt herself literally jump.

"God, JJ, way to scare me." She found herself relax almost instantly.

"Sorry, I came to say we caught the son of a bitch. Found him hiding her at his mother's house. The mom was dead in the closet. Apparently she was his first victim." Elle felt herself shake, this time from the utter horrific details of it all. "We're going to be flying back in an hour or two. Hotch told me to tell you that you can stay here for a few days, then drive home with Reid." Shaking her head, Elle realised it was not a good idea with the dizziness.

"No, I can fly back now. I think I will get a hell of a lot better if I was at home in my own bed." JJ gave a nod.

"Alright then, do you think you'll be okay to pack all of your stuff up while I go tell Hotch?" Elle gave a nod.

"Sure." She waited the moment while JJ shut the bedroom door before turning on the small bedside lamp. Cringing slightly at the light in the room.

NTNTNT

As she let herself sink into one of the jets seats she felt herself drifting back off into sleep. Her hands rubbed at her eyes, trying her best to keep herself awake. Carefully feeling her forehead as she went. _Okay, definetely warmer. _She noted the sudden warmth and protested as JJ tried to put a blanket over her, instead taking it off of the Media Liaison and folding it into a pillow. Her hand rested on her stomach where it had finally stopped cramping, yet it was tight, and there was a lingering ache. She carefully dug the pills from her bag and took two, not missing the looks from every one else on the plane. _Shut up. _She mentally told them all to stay quiet and not question anything as she felt herself sinking into a deep darkness of sleep.

NT

The jet came to a jolt as it landed, and Hotch cursed silently for not waking Elle up, but was grateful as she did not roll off of the seat or was startled awake. Carefully he watched as everyone on the jet did not dare to move, all wanting to know she was okay for some strange reason. JJ stood up and walked over to the profiler, shaking her shoulder gently.

"Elle." She spoke softly. Carefully. She waited a moment in which she had expected the brunette to wake up. Both of JJ's eyebrows creased when she did not stir. "Elle." She said more harshly, giving a stronger shake of her shoulder, and a more harsh tone yet there was no more response. "Elle!" This time she put her hand on the brunette's forehead. "Hotch's she's burning up." She informed him and in a moment the entire team was around her seat.

"JJ, get paramedics." Hotch ordered.

"On it." The blonde immediately raced off of the jet.

"Reid, check her over." Reid nodded, taking his hand and pressing it into her neck.

"She has a slow pulse." He informed them, "Shallow breathing as well." He pressed his hand to her forehead and cheeks. "And a temperature of about 106, 107."

"She really isn't well." Hotch could not have missed the look from Morgan of 'I told you so' but for now, it was masked thickly by his concern for Elle.

NTNTNT

"Elle Greenaway?" A doctor walked into the waiting room, a clipboard in his hand. The team all looked up into the eyes of the man.

"Yes?" Hotch was the first to speak.

"She's going to be fine." A whole chorus of sighs left their bodies.

"Thank God." JJ now said.

"What's wrong with her?" Gideon now asked.

"She seemed to have just a normal flu, but it developed into a bacterial chest infection, which, if left untreated could have developed into pneumonia. She's lucky you caught it now."

"But she's going to be just fine?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, we'll monitor her for the night to get the fever down, she's on a drip for her dehydration, and we'll set her a course of anti-biotics which when she gets out she will take at home." Hotch gave a nod.

"How long will it take her to recover?" He now asked, slipping back into his boss demeanour.

"She should feel fine in a few days with the anti-biotics, although it's not recommended she return to work until a week or two. The cough may carry on for one week to a month but it's nothing to serious." He received a nod.

"Can we see her?" JJ asked.

"You can, but she will be asleep, and probably will be for the majority of the night if she is left undisturbed. But in case she wakes up, we don't want to over whelm her so we suggest one at a time, two at a push." Hotch stood up.

"I'll go." Now it was the doctors turn to nod at him.

"Alright, she's in A1-15, it's down the hall and to the left."

NTNTNT

Elle felt her eyes flutter open, and she took in the new surrounding. She was in… _Hospital room?_ She questioned and felt herself take a deep breath as she finally felt the headache disappear.

"Hey, you're up." _Hotch? Smiling?_ She gave herself a groggy laugh.

"Guess so." She began to sit up and gave a light cough. "What happened?" She looked down and noticed the drip sitting in the back of her hand and the coolness of a cold towel Hotch had just pressed to her forehead.

"You passed out on the plane. No one knew until we landed. Apparently you have a chest infection." She knew that Hotch look, he was mad at her. _I do not need this right now. _"Why didn't you tell anyone how bad you felt, Elle? We could have helped you!"

"It doesn't matter now. I'm fine." She looked down, not wanting to meet his accusatory stares.

"No, it does matter. I need to know why you didn't tell anyone how bad you felt, or even why you didn't call in sick!" She felt herself breath a deep breath out.

"I didn't want you to think I couldn't do my job." Elle informed him.

"If anything you proved it even more by doing this, you need to think of yourself and the team. What if it had gone further? You could have infected us all, or even passed out and put yourself in danger!"

"It's not like I intended to do it!" She really regretted saying it out loud, last time she remembered that was intended as a thought.

"No, but it could have gone seriously wrong."

"Well I'm sorry." Her other hand frantically picked at the tape holding the drip into the back of her hand.

"What are you doing?" Hotch shot her a glare.

"I need to get out of here." She told him, still trying her best to pick it off. Hotch used his own hand in an unprofessional way, holding her hand and moving it away from the tape.

"Leave it, you're staying, you need to get better. And I'm giving you the next two weeks off."

"Two weeks?" She looked a little less happy.

"No arguing." Hotch gave her another glare and took his hand off of her own.

"Fine." Elle's eyes dropped focussing on the sheet she was lying in.

"You need to sleep." He finally said after a moment of silence. Elle gave him a nod, not wanting to argue again, and also feeling the exhaustion take over her body. "I'll go call the team." As he left the room, she felt herself roll onto her side, facing away from the door, a soft tear rolling down her cheek as her eyes closed into a soft slumber.


End file.
